When the anus is removed because of colon cancer, rectum cancer or metastasis of a malignant tumor in the placenta to the rectum or for some other reason, it is the practice to build a single-hole artificial anus in the abdominal wall by using the transverse colon, descending colon or sigmoid colon. Such an artificial anus does not have a sphincter function.
The number of patients devoid of constricting function has increased year by year with the increasing number of aged people or increasing cases of cancer of the large intestine. At present, however, there is substantially no medically effective means of reviving the sphincter function, and it has been strongly desired to develop a practical method of artificially reviving the constricting function.
As measures for preventing leakage of feces from the artificial anus, it has been the previous practice to apply a closure or stopper made of gauze or other suitable materials to the opening part of the artificial anus, or to attach a LAPAC (a bag having a rim for bonding in the edge portion of its opening) to the skin around the opening part of the artificial anus using an adhesive. Such measures, however, cause various troubles unbearable to the patients, such as the occurrence of contact dermatitis owing to the adhesive or the occurrence of malodors from feces that might be leaked.
In an attempt to overcome such troubles, a magnet-type artificial anus was proposed. For example, "Shujutsu" (Operation), vol. 33 (1979), pages 369-373 describes a magnetic artificial anus shown by the longitudinal sectional view of FIG. 5 attached to the present application (hatches showing the cut section are partly omitted). As shown in FIG. 5, the conventional magnetic artificial anus has a ring-like permanent magnet 30 implanted between a subcutaneous tissue 5 and a muscular tissue so as to surround the periphery of an artificial anus wall 3. The opening of the artificial anus is plugged by a stopper member 33 having a leg portion 2" capable of being inserted into the opening portion of the artificial anus, a magnet cap 31 and a filter washer 32 embedded in the cap. The stopper member 33 is held and fixed in position by utilizing the magnetic attracting force between the ring-like permanent magnet 30 and the magnet cap 31.
Since in such a conventional magnet-type artificial anus, the heavy ring-like permanent magnet is implanted in the tissues, the magnet descends by gravity and unduly causes bending of the colon, or the skin tissues between the ring-like permanent magnet and the stopper member are pressed and necrotized. Furthermore, the patient has a strong feel of having a foreign object present. Hence, this conventional artificial anus is no longer used now in practice.
It is an object of this invention therefore to provide an artificial anus which can overcome the technical problems of the conventional magnetic artificial anus.